The teaching of reading at Manchester Road begins as soon as the children come to our Early Years (Little Owls, Hedgehogs and Rabbits)
Throughout the Early Years children learn how to read words using synthetic phonics - a specialised program in which all our EY team are trained.
To teach phonics, the school uses ‘Read, Write, Inc’ which is a very structured approach to learning to read, write and spell.
In addition to being taught phonics, the children will also take home a library book or a school reading book. When they are ready to start reading text independently, the children will join a reading group.
Once in Year 1 , the children continue to follow ‘Read, Write inc.’ for phonics focusing on reading more complex words, fluency and spelling. This will continue in year 2 for those children who need it.
The children will have a session of read, write, inc phonics for 30 mins each day. During this time they are in small groups with adults who have had extensive training.
For more information about Read, write, inc. follow the link below:
To teach the mastery of reading after phonics children take part in a guided reading session. They read a book appropriate for their ability in a small group with an adult at least once a week. These session focus on fluency and comprehension skills.
Staff will work closely with parents to encourage home reading. Children will be provided with reading books which match their ability and have access to hundreds of online reading books via active learn.
All children in Year 2 visit the library and sign up to be a member if they have not already.
If any parents or visitors would like more information about the teaching of reading and phonics, please contact Vicky Leah, Vicky Simpson or Rebecca Evans…Your child’s class teacher will also be able to tell you all about our exciting reading process!
You can see more about our teaching of reading on the curriculum examples pages.
Throughout the school we follow The Write Stuff approach to writing. In EY children begin their writing journey with lots of talking which develops their vocabulary. Children are encouraged to 'mark make' straight away. As children learn to write letters and sounds through their phonics sessions they will be encouraged to apply this to their writing. We use the lenses of the FANTASTICS,BOOMTASTICS AND GRAMATICS to help the children become excellent writers ( see images for more details).
In KS1 we work on writing sentences to create different genres of writing such as instructions, recounts, narratives etc. and enriching these sentences through vocabulary choices. We weave grammar through our teaching so that it is purposeful and children understand the function. Children are taught to read and edit their own writing. We enrich the children's learning through 'experience days' which give the opportunity for children to experience new concepts, places, ideas etc via interactive experiences.
We have a huge focus on handwriting. Children are taught how to form letters correctly, how to position them on the line and how to make them the correct size in relation to each other. When children are confident with this we will teach them to join letters.